Lyric poetry, in the proper sense of the term, did not exist among the natives of India at this period, for even here their fondness for description has taken the place of everything else, and, instead of lyric poetry, we have the epigrammatic, didactic, descriptive. Even their amatory poetry appears to be not so much the expression and effusion of feeling as a studied and laboured display of situations. An agreeable work of this description, the ' Amaresatakam,' consists of 100 single small poems, each of them being nothing more than a stanza which represents an amatory scene, and which we should call an epi gram. (Published at Calcutta, 1608.) To this class belongs also the SrinOratilaka,' which has been improperly ascribed to Kali dila% To these must be added the first book of the ' Centuries' of Bhartrihari, while the two other books contain didactic poetry. The work has been ascribed to the brother of King Vikramaditya, who lived in the 1st century, ac. ; and we have the high authority of Prof. Lassen (' Ind. Alt.,' ii. S03, 1161), for the probability of this being correct. (First edited at Serampore, with the 4Hitopadesa, 1804 ; and at Berlin, 1333, by Bohlen.) Among the poems properly called descriptive, by far the best is the' Meghadata,' certainly a genuine work of Kalidasa, which in a style of the utmost elegance and simplicity, describes the course of a cloud over a part of India, the residence of the god of riches and of the wife of a demigod who had been banished to earth [ClianasA, in Bloc. Div.] : the poem is put in the mouth of the demigod himself. The value of this poem as a work of art lies chiefly in this, that every single external pheno menon receives a spiritual meaning, and all nature seems to be endowed with life. it is very different in the later poems of this class, which are properly only rhetorical centos and collections of all the current expressions and comparisons of previous poets. A work of this kind on the seasons—a subject indeed which is frequently intro duced in the epic poems, the Ilitusanhara '—has been improperly ascribed to Ktalidasa. (Printed at Calcutta in 1792, and at Leipzig in 1839.) A similar one on amatory common-places, Chaurapanchasika' (in Bohlen's 4 Bbartriliaris is bombastic and spiritless. This branch of literature must have been very rich, and many of the older works have undoubtedly been lost. Most of those that are extant, including the ' 3leghadata," Itituounhara, GI tagovinda," Nalodaya," Bhartrihari,' Amarasataka,' are contained in I Iceberlin's Sanskrit Anthology,' Cale., 1847.
The Drama.—According to the tradition of the 1Iindus, the Indian drama had its origin in very ancient times, the rules concerning it having been communicated by Brahma himself to the hermit Bharata (which means the supporter, bard, actor). Though we are unable to trace it historically, as we know it only in its perfected form, still we may perhaps not be far wrong if we fix about the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 3rd ceutury B.C. as the most probable time when it received its first development. An examination of the technical terms employed in the Hindu drama favours the supposition that, in its first stage, it consisted in dances, accompanied by gestures and songs, in which some historical event was celebrated ; that then the persons themselves who were the subjects of those songs were represented by the singers; and that, lastly, the regular dialogue took the place of the (Lancing and singing. (Larsen,' Ind. Alt.,' ii. 502-5; Weber,' Ind. Lit.,' 134, fE)
Such performances are still retained in their original form at the festivals of Mina and Krishna. The characters of the pieces come forward one after another, and sing a song accompanied with gesture. It is obvious that a conaiderable time must have elapsed before so simple a beginning could have grown into a regular dialogue and a complicated action, in which mythological and domestic, and even historical, materials are interwoven into the representation. But the Indian drama, even in its highest state, is still in a low condition. Among the Greeks and the moderns individual action and the collision of moral powers form the moving forces of the drama ; but that of India is rather a series of events and situations which are exhibited in succession to the spectator. The distinction between tragedy and comedy is unknown, and the Indian drama most nearly resembles the modern opera. The and dramatists have not yet arrived at the discrimination of character ; the heroes and heroines resemble one another more or lees in all their dramas; and the species rather than the individual is everywhere represented. There are also standing characters, such as the rile, who is the grades,. of the Spanish stage, and the riddshaka, who is the clown of the old English. This latter personage is always the necessary attendant of the principal hero, whom he parodies, and whose ideal wishes ho contrasts with his own practical views, and these contrasts are often very strongly coloured. The strict rules of the Creek drama are unknown to that of India, and even in many external particulars it is comparatively unfettered,—as, for instance, in the number of acts, of which there may be as many as ten. In the form there are two peculiarities which especially require notice : first, the interchange of dialects in the dialogue, which is in general skilfully and delicately managed, and gives us a high idtv, of the social cultivation of the Indians in those remote times (it has already been observed that the heroes speak Sanskrit, but that the women and inferior characters speak various dialects of Prakrit); and, second, the interchange of prose and verse. The dialogue is entirely in prose, but is intarspersed with verses in the lyric metres, always of the descriptive character before mentioned, which sometimes exhibit a feeling or a situation, and sometimes describe something which cannot be actually represented on the stage, as the rapid travelling of a vehicle. As to the scenic representation, our information is limited. It may be inferred from their rhetorical books that groat care was bestowed on the declamation and the costume, but the stage-management and the decorations appear to have been very nide. Still the dramatic lite rature of India is beyond all doubt much richer than we are yet aware of. The names of about GO pieces are known to us, of which 13 have been edited, and we are indebted to Professor Wilson for longer or shorter notices of 20 others. Theatre of the II halms' 2nd edit, Lend., 1335.) Fortunately, the pieces which have been edited are stabeient to enable us to take a rapid view of all the eras and divisions of this branch of their literature.